Sunday, April 09, 2006

Before I start off I need to mention to you all that I'm trying to reply to some of the posts/emails, but my email at the moment is bouncing some of the messages back. I can tell it is on my side because it covers all kinds of providers that are coming back. So if you haven't heard from me please know that I"m working on it!

The quilt above was in one of the booths from a quilt store in Wisconsin that is one of my favorites to visit at the show. It is a bit far from me to drive to, but I so want to go see it someday! Anyway this quilt they are doing as a BOM through their store, but I was good and only bought the book! I have tons of fabrics in my stash that will work for it. And wouldn't just a block of it be cute gifts for friends done up as a small wall-hanging! So I bought that book with that in mind! The book is from someone in WI as well. This shop is owned or run by Lisa Bongean who does a lot of primitive stuff and has had those popular wool BOM's. Here is a link to the shop BOM of page: “Loving My Quilts” quilt from Primitive Gatherings in WI. BOM:http://www.primitivegatherings.us/block-of-month.html. They are going to be in May's Quilt Sampler magazine and Lisa has designed an AWESOME quilt for that issue: http://www.primitivegatherings.us/Announcement.htmlNow this awesome fabric came from Cherrywood Fabrics. I had first seen them at the show in Madison last fall. I had fallen in love with them, but was good and didn't buy any because I wasn't sure what I would do with them. Well this time I bought these. They are going into a mystery quilt I designed for our guild that is starting next month! They are going to be soooo perfect! They were already out of the yellow one! I need more, but they said they would be at Paducah, so I"m hoping to get more yardage there of that one. If not there is enough here to start what I need and I can order later.Then came my give. A friend I went with does a lot of miniatures and bright colors. I do traditional and muddy colors. So we did a give and take for our Monday night sewing! This little feathered star finished at only 17"x17"! And I HATE paper piecing! So she is going to help me with this pattern. Darcie had the gall to suggest I just draft it and piece it! Yeah right. These patterns are by Cindi Edgerton and come in little 3" x 3" packets with tissue paper foundations. Just the little packets are adorable! Julie's give was to work on this Judy Rothermel kit we both bought! It is a miniature version of her big civil war quilt in her book. But my miniature I don't mean "miniature" - it is just smaller than the big one! More like wall hanging size. She fell in love with the brown and blue which are so NOT her colors! Of course I love brown, but never work in blue - so this was a good one for me too! Another Monday night project!Then I bought this little kit from my favorite store near Madison. I try and get there twice a year, but don't always make it. I can do it in a day, but it is a full day. Anyway, they specialize in folk art and reproduction. The coolest thing they do is collect antique quilts and then make patterns of them and kit them. The new quilts look exactly like the antique quilts - it is amazing how close they can come to the original fabrics! I've done many of them. This little quilt they found a pattern, but redid it in civil war fabrics and made it bigger. It is WAY cuter in real life and the fabrics are awesome. So this will be fun to work on sometime. Oh I fogot, the shop is called JJ Stitches and that one was in the Quilt Sampler magazine several years ago. They had the bubble gum pink quilt that was on the cover that year. Oh and the lady who owns this store is who the small nine patch quilt was made for.Then came all the fun little things I got. The Lickety Grip from Lolly Corp is for your fingers when machine quilting or using your rulers. You rub it on and you get a good grip, but it doesn't leave oil marks. My friend Julie picked that up for us. Then Joan picked up these cute little pre-made appliques for shirts from Applique Buffet. She got some last year and said they hold up so well in the wash! So I have to make a little shirt for Paducah with it! Then of course you need patterns! The bar one is by Judy Rothermel and is adorable in real life, the pattern cover is kind of blah - but it show repro fabric so nicely. And Stone Soup is from one of my favorite quilt stores (Quilters General Store) in Rockford that I get to a few times a year. I saw the quilt in July at our retreat for the store but the patterns were not done yet. So I had to make sure I picked this one up.And what is a quilt show without books to lug around all day - oh my shoulders are soooo sore! The Gayle Bong one has this really fun quilt in it, so I had to buy the book for that!Then to wrap it up we found a thread organizer for applique - or whatever - like Karen Kay Buckley uses. So I had to get that! I've been wanting one, but the ones she sells are not my colors or fabric at all - so now I can make my own!!!! Another project for Monday nights! I think we have the next 3 years planned! Julie has that pattern right now, so all I have is the link to it and the web picture. http://www.byannie.com/thread_dispenser_patterns.html.

Ok Dawn, my knees are feelin' a bit weak just looking at all your wnderful goodies! I'll take a picture of my "haul" tomorrow, but you gotta promise not to laugh! Hint: it'll all fit into one frame! I loved the bar quilt, also. Oh, who am I kidding? I love it ALL!!

Whee, buying fabric. Wish I could been there for that. Course mine all would have looked completely different. I love Cherrywood fabric too. I bought one of their dyed mock turtlenecks in the most gorgeous purple color - I love it. At the time I thought it was really expensive, but it has held up excellently and the color still looks the same as when I got it.

I recognize the brown & blue project. (I wanted their Indigo shoo-fly kit, but they sold out of it... That was the vendor that I told you that split their stuff and went to both shows Lancaster & Chicago.)

Wow....you got me good with the link for the thread organizer!! I have one that I bought off of Karen and I, too, don't care for the colors but LOVE to store my thread in it. Guess who just went and bought themselves the pattern? *groan* The economy should be booming after what I've spent in the past 5 days!

Oh wow. Now I really wish I could go shopping with you in Paducah. Your taste seems to run the same as mine. I work for a software development company and I have had to travel to Madison quite often. I try to go to Mill House Quilts and a few of the other shops around, but I ALWAYS make time to drive over to Sun Prarie to J.J. Stitches. I could wander around there for hours.

I have this book to Dawn. I will make from this quilt a class. when you want to make it too. I advice you to buy the mary sue triangle (60 degree) ruler. with that one you can also make my purple stars..